Customer Support built a shift planner that emails PDFs

“The admin page isn't linked anywhere.”— Head of Operations

Reason:

Mainly because the workflow has 74 steps and nobody wants to open it. With 94 users and 26 feature requests.

Built by:

Kevin, a controller

Build time:

a long Thursday

Built with:

WordPress with eleven plugins

Database:

a global JavaScript variable

Authentication:

the guest Wi-Fi password is also the admin password

Deployment:

behind a domain that still contains the word demo

Responsible:

Finance, according to IT

Documentation:

Bastian's memory

Security situation:

production secrets are in a Slack message

Future disaster:

It will become part of the company's "digital core" slide deck.

Age: 6.8 years · originally expected to last 3 months · 2 owners so far · survived 3 reorganisations · last meaningful change 74 days ago

Rated rare mostly because: 644 users, 88% chance of becoming business critical, alive 27x longer than intended.